The first no-holds-barred exposé of the exploitative and divisive world of internships
Ross Perlin is a graduate of Stanford, SOAS, and Cambridge, and has written for, the New York Times, Time magazine, Lapham's Quarterly, Guardian, Daily Mail, and Open Democracy. He is researching disappearing languages in China.
A portrait of how white-collar work is changing ...
thought-provoking and at times jaw-dropping-almost a companion
volume to Naomi Klein's celebrated 2000 exposé of modern
sweatshops, No Logo.
*Guardian*
A compelling investigation of a trend that threatens to destroy
'what's left of the ordered world of training, hard work and fair
compensation' ... Full of restrained force and wit, this is a
valuable book on a subject that demands attention.
*Observer*
A book that offers landmark coverage of its topic.
*London Review of Books*
Perlin contends that most internships are illegal, according to the
Fair Labor and Standards Act, stripping people who are employees in
all but name of workers' rights.
*New Yorker*
[An] eye-opening, welcome exposé.
*Sunday Times*
This vigorous and persuasive book ... argues that the fundamental
issue is the growing contingency of the global workforce.
*Bookforum*
Organizations in America save $2 billion a year by not paying
interns a minimum wage, writes Ross Perlin in Intern Nation.
*Economist*
Well-researched and timely.
*Daily Telegraph*
[E]ye-opening ... The book tackles a sprawling topic with
earnestness and flair.
*Washington Post*
Perlin ... has an eye for polemical effectiveness.
*Times Literary Supplement*
A timely book addressing the exploitation of the nation's younger
workforce under the guise of the 'internship model.'
*Huffington Post*
A serious and extremely well-written text that offers sophisticated
historical material about the origins of internship and its impact
on the individuals concerned, the firms that use it and the world
of work more generally
*Times Higher Education*
Perlin's attempt to understand internships as a symptom of wider
trends in the economy ... makes the book such a fascinating
read.
*Spectator*
When you are competing for jobs during a recession, the only thing
worse than being exploited can be not being exploited. Yes, many
internships are really crummy, but then some of them do ultimately
lead to something ... which is why, when people have no access to
internships at all, it makes them invisible.
*Times of London*
Perlin dissects the employment practices of some of the world's
biggest corporations, inc¬luding Disney, which he accuses of
replacing "well-trained, decently compensated full-timers" with an
army of low-paid interns. But for employers that approach
recruitment strategically, internships are typically a cost-albeit
one they hope will pay off in better, happier recruits.
*Financial Times*
[Perlin's] exposé on the internship model initiates a critical
conversation on internships ... his thoughtful book is necessary
reading for the millions of young people trying to break into the
working world through internships.
*Publishers Weekly*
That fact that it took this long for someone to write this book
seems as blatantly wrong as the practice itself. Perlin provides a
welcome, long-overdue and much-needed argument.
*Kirkus Reviews*
Perlin's writing is engaging and the questions he raises are valid
ones in an increasingly competitive job market.
*Library Journal*
[A] blistering, highly entertaining attack on today's internship
culture.
*Boston Globe*
'Interns built the pyramids,' the great magazine The Baffler once
declared. And that was just the beginning of their labors, as Ross
Perlin demonstrates in this fascinating and overdue exposé of the
wage labor without wages, the resumé-building servitude, at the
heart of contemporary capitalism.
*Benjamin Kunkel, a founding editor of n+1 and author of
the novel Indecision*
Cloaked in the innocent idea of the intern, aggressive employers
are using young people trying to get a foothold to weaken the
leverage of existing workers, especially professionals. Ross Perlin
gives us an account of another subterranean strategy to undermine
working people in the US.
*Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Political Science
and Sociology at the Graduate Center, CUNY*
Alas, the valuable internship institution is being widely and
flagrantly abused, as Ross Perlin demonstrates in this eye-opening
book. A huge chunk of the American workplace has been distorted in
an unhealthy way, and Perlin provides not only the diagnosis but
the beginnings of a prescription.
*James Ledbetter, editor in charge of Reuters.com, and author of
Unwarranted Influence*
The world has been waiting for this book. It's lucky that someone
as thoughtful and politically aware as Ross Perlin was there to
write it.
*Anya Kamenetz, author of Generation Debt and DIY
U*
Few books have been written about the effect of internships, so
this short book will be eye-opening for many. Students and parents
should add it their reading lists.
*St. Louis Post-Dispatch*
For critics such as Ross Perlin, author of Intern Nation, unpaid
labor harms everyone in the labor market.
*Reuters*
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